Der ungeschriebene Befehl : Hitler und der Weg zur "Endlösung"

An expanded version of two expert reports submitted by Longerich for the defense in the Irving v. Lipstadt trial. States that Hitler obviously did not leave a written order authorizing the mass murder of the Jews in Europe, and this fact gives revisionist historians a pretext to deny the Holocaust. Other historians also deny Hitler's responsibility for the Holocaust. Argues that the Final Solution was classified as a secret operation, and therefore the Nazis preferred oral instructions to explicit written directives. Antisemitism lay at the core of Nazism from its early days; the motif of elimination of the Jews was present in Hitler's public pronouncements of the 1920s. Once he achieved power, Hitler initiated all the anti-Jewish actions. Moreover, he used the anti-Jewish policy to gain advantages for his regime both in Germany and abroad. During the war, it was he who steadily radicalized Germany's anti-Jewish policy leading to the desire for the total annihilation of the Jews. He had full knowledge of the practical measures against the Jews and bears full responsibility for the genocide. Includes bibliographical references (pages 223-235) and index. 239 pages ; 20 cm